FCT farmers get NIMET’s nod for planting

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) have asked farmers in Abuja and its environs to start planting as the quantity of moisture in the soil is adequate.

The General Manager, Public Weather Services of NIMET, Mr Wilson Samson, however, advised farmers in the northern parts of the country to still hold on.

“The central North can start plating their crops, but the extreme north should wait for the onset of the rainy season and that is between May and June, in order for the ground to be wet enough for planting.

“This year’s rainfall pattern will favour farming, except in those states where we mentioned in our Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) that there would be excessive rainfall that may lead to flooding,’’ Samson said. According to the SRP, most parts of the country are expected to have normal onset with the exception of locations in Niger, Anambra, Delta, northern Cross River, parts of Ogun and Ondo states

The agency had warned farmers in the north to wait for the proper onset of the rainy season before planting.

NIMETDirector-General, Anthony Anuforom, said the rains witnessed in the northern area, especially in Abuja between January and March, were deceptive.

Anuforom said: “The rainy season has not started. What happened between January 10 and 24 was as a result of Inter-Tropical Discontinued (ITD) lines, whereby the cool air blowing from the Sahara Desert meets with the wet, warm air from the ocean.

“When the hot air and cold air met, the processes of mixing generated a lot of convection which caused a lot of moisture to be swept into Nigeria and led to the rains.”

He explained that it was the same system that resulted in the severe winter in Europe, adding that another causative factor was the low pressure system moving from the west to the east.